rec.autos.simulators

That's not true.  The issue has to do with mapping a variable 3D field of
view into the invariant aspect ratio of your monitor.  So if you were to
fill the GPL's screen with the current field of view, there would be
artifacts.  You get the same type of artifacts as you change the FOV in
Quake and F22 ADF/TAW, for example.

I think everyone agrees that we don't *need* any more sky or***pit (i.e.
vertical FOV) to make the game any better.  It could be added to satisfy
your desire for atmosphere, but surely you don't look at the sky or your lap
while you are racing GPL?  Given this, there are 3 options that were open to
the programmers:

1)  Do what they did.

2)  Make the game with a narrower horizontal FOV so that the current
vertical FOV fills the screen from top to bottom.  Not good, IMO.  Wider FOV
= better peripheral vision and better sense of speed.

3)  Keep both FOV's what they currently are, and make everything look as if
you were viewing it through a fisheye lens (edge artifacts a-la Quake and
F22-ADF).

4)  Make the game with the current horizontal FOV, move the current graphics
down, and increase the vertical FOV to fill the rest of the screen with sky.
This is pointless, since it doesn't show you any more of the game, and just
eats more graphics and CPU cycles.

Now keep something in mind:  To make number 3 or 4 a user-selectable option,
they would have had to rewrite the graphics engine to add the extra viewing
mode.  This would have taken time to program in.  Which part of the current
feature set of GPL would you have sacrificed for them to take the time to
put this in?

Jarrod Smith
The Scripps Research Institute
http://www.racesimcentral.net/~jsmith

Ok.. after "Have you ever drove a car?" here is ...

"Have you ever watched a movie?"

What you just wrote is very very very hilarious.  Hmm, that's probably why
the Pan&Scan version of Star Wars doesn't show the Tusken Raiders... and
that I got them in Letterbox.

Do you know that when you watch a movie on television, that the image is
cropped and edited so you actualy loose (depending on the original ratio) 30
to 40% of the actual movie ? You ever watched 2001 in Letterbox ? The movie
vision is completely different.

Of course, coming from what you said about GPL, Im not surprise of such
words out of your mouth. Oh btw this person emailed me with a "F*ck you
French bastard" post.

- Fran?ois Mnard <ymenard> Good race at the Brickyard!
- Official Mentally retarded guy of r.a.s.
- Excuse me for my English (I'm French speaking)
- Sponsored by http://www.awpss.com/ on the NROS
- "People think it must be fun to be a super genius, but they don't realise
how hard it is to put up with all the idiots in the world."--

I won't even reply to this.

Xenophobe and racist.

- Fran?ois Mnard <ymenard> Good race at the Brickyard!
- Official Mentally retarded guy of r.a.s.
- Excuse me for my English (I'm French speaking)
- Sponsored by http://www.awpss.com/ on the NROS
- "People think it must be fun to be a super genius, but they don't realise
how hard it is to put up with all the idiots in the world."--

Well, it's a closed***pit in N3, so the virtual***pit will take all the
screen. I wouldn't be surprised to see a wide-screen while "out of the car"
with F10. And that's if they ever make an behind-the-car view hehe.

Finally, who give an arse about a black spot on your monitor.  Who cares
!!!!! So pathetic at a certain point.

- Fran?ois Mnard <ymenard> Good race at the Brickyard!
- Official Mentally retarded guy of r.a.s.
- Excuse me for my English (I'm French speaking)
- Sponsored by http://www.racesimcentral.net/
- "People think it must be fun to be a super genius, but they don't realise
how hard it is to put up with all the idiots in the world."--

+AD4-
+AD4-I've lost count of the number of times I've been shunted off the
track from
+AD4-behind, even in the warm-ups when braking at the last possible moment
in the
+AD4-cars with the best brakes (e.g. Parabolica at Monza). This inevitably
leads
+AD4-to the culprit being put out of the race - hardly realistic IMO.

   Somehow I find this hard to believe.  When you drive
smartly and competently the AI has no problem with
you.   Reflecting on your complaint a bit further down the
line of the cars being too hard to drive, I'm betting that
your technique is not up to snuff.

+AD4-I prefer programmes which use the whole screen - it gives more
atmosphere
+AD4-IMO.

  +ACI-atmoshpere+ACI- is right.  Lotsa clouds to look at.   Again if
you're concentrating on the scenery instead of your driving,
it's no wonder that the AI punts you outta the way.

+AD4APgA+-The cars are much too difficult to drive and this is very
unrealistic
+AD4APg-
+AD4APg-Who sez?
+AD4-
+AD4-I did, Do you disagree?

  Got any proof?  According to all published sources,
interviews with the drivers, track tests, etc. these things
were nearly impossible to drive.  If they were easy,
EVERYONE woulda been a GP racer in 1967.  The
stock car I drove a few years back was tough enough.

+AD4APgA+-The sound is not at all convincing
+AD4APg-
+AD4APg-Guess you haven't heard that Maranello monster..........
+AD4-
+AD4-I have driven the Ferrari in GPL - which I admit has a nice engine
note. I
+AD4-wasn't just referring to the engine sounds though. All of the other
sounds
+AD4-are far too quiet IMO and there's no option to change the sound
levels as
+AD4-there is in most other racing sims. I think that an opportunity was
missed
+AD4-to add a lot of interesting sounds and thereby improve the
atmosphere.
+AD4-

   Which sounds would those be?  Airplanes buzzing
overhead?  Birds chirping?

  It's quite obvious that you've never been at the wheel
of a full bore race car doing 160 on a track.  You hear
NOTHING but your engine and sometimes some engine
noise from the cars around you.  Some of the big boys I've
talked to said that you can hear the crowd screaming
at Daytona and such, but I never got to run a race in front
of 100,000 people.

+AD4-In many ways I agree. If this is supposed to offend me then it
doesn't,
+AD4-since I don't have an inferiority complex. It's true that I'm not
going to
+AD4-devote all my spare time to driving GPL. If it had a more realistic
+AD4-difficulty level then I think it would be more rewarding. This is
plain
+AD4-common sense.

  Again with the +ACI-realistic difficulty level.+ACI-   What you should
be saying is +ACI-a less difficult level.+ACI-   Don't cry foul when the
only thing you have to compare it against is driving a
four-door sedan on the highway to work.  And don't ask for
+ACI-a more realistic difficulty level+ACI- when what you really want is
an arcade game.

+AD4-
+AD4-I like GPL a lot but it's not perfect. Do you recognise any faults
with GPL
+AD4-at all?

  Yeah.  The fact that they let people who are really looking
for a glorified PlayStation game purchase it.

  -dobe-

+AD4-So the guy has some problems with GPL is that a reason to flame him?
Take
+AD4-your condesending little +ACI-this is why you are being flamed+ACI- form and
sick at
+AD4-up your ass.

  heheh.  Hotmail.  heheh.

  -dobe-

Jarrod Smith
The Scripps Research Institute
http://www.scripps.edu/~jsmith

but not nearly as stupid as your initial over-the-top response to
someone with the temerity to criticise GPL.

Each to his own, some like it and some don't.

I have to given that I, and many others, have no problem driving the
cars. I think it's okay to say "the cars are difficult to drive", but
without having a lot of seat time in 60's F1 cars I don't see how you
can claim this to be unrealistic, just as no-one can make a claim to
the contrary.

Cheers!
John

Of course... some people just don't understand that ;)

Actually.. this r.a.s TROLL FAQ is here since years. It's a little inside
joke for many people in the newsgroup and I've seen people use it at least
40-50times in the history of r.a.s.

Take it more on the funny side...  that's what is it meant to be ;)

No keyboard was harm during the making of this post...

- Fran?ois Mnard <ymenard> Good race at the Brickyard!
- Official Mentally retarded guy of r.a.s.
- Excuse me for my English (I'm French speaking)
- Sponsored by http://www.awpss.com/ on the NROS
- "People think it must be fun to be a super genius, but they don't realise
how hard it is to put up with all the idiots in the world."--

It's a matter of opinion.  Personally, I hate it when movies aren't shown
letterbox, because they have to pan and scan to fit, and that ruins what
the director and cinematographer were trying to do in the first place (in
movies, that is).

Yes, you are absolutely correct that it gives less atmosphere, if we take
atmosphere to mean the blue layer clinging tenaciously to our earth.  If
you mean atmosphere as "general ambience and feeling", then my opinion is
that the extra sky adds nothing to the feeling of being there.

Stephen

...Andrew

I also don't think anyone has addressed the point that it is realistic for
the AI to put themselves out of the race during practise sessions with
suicidal driving. Surely you agree that this is not 'realistic'?